Pretty Little Changes
by Tying-The-Rules
Summary: Spencer Hastings has been in love with Toby Cavanaugh ever since the Jenna-search. Since then, the two of them have been a couple. For months, the two were a couple. Yet at the same time, Spencer was battling an unknown 'A'. Or was she..? Spencer starts out by stealing Malcolm from Aria, and brings him to the carnival, but what more will she do to be with Toby? To satisfy herself?


With a look of concentration, Spencer twirled the key with an 'A' attached to it in her fingers. She tried to figure out what it was, where it was a key too, and how she was going to find out. Another clue for 'A'!  
It was her and Toby Cavanaugh's anniversary, and she'd been planning a surprise for him. The catch? He thought she was going to a formal dinner and couldn't celebrate. A surprise, that's what it was. And it was going to be perfect.  
It wasn't set up yet, obviously, since Toby hadn't even left for work yet.  
Then, there was rustling outside the wide-window door. Her breath stopped for a second and she set the key down momentarily, glancing out the window anxiously, looking for any sign of anybody. There was absolutely nothing.  
She held her breath, looking through toward the other door across the room.  
Nothing.  
All of a sudden a familiar face popped up into the window, a white shirt on.  
Toby.  
She exhaled with relief, as Toby broke into a smile and pulled the door open, stepping in to meet his girlfriend, who was getting over a heart attack.  
"You scared me!" She told him with a laugh, walking away from the key on the counter and over to him.  
"I'm sorry. I wanted to surprise you." He joked with a grin, one arm behind his back, and the other at his sides like it was normal. The smile didn't leave his face.  
Spencer eyed him suspiciously. "You did... Why aren't you at work?" She asked, not that she wanted him at work, but she thought he would be by now. The more time she could get to set up the perfect evening, the better.  
"I'm on a break." He explained, looking her right in the eye. "and since I'm not going to see you tonight..." He paused as she pouted. "Happy Anniversary." He brought his arm around himself, showing a big bouquet of flowers in a bundle for Spencer.  
"Oh!" Spencer covered her mouth in surprise, in happiness, she smiled and creased her eyebrows as she took the flowers from Toby. "They're beautiful." She told him, looking at the flowers then up at her boyfriend, breaking into a grin. "Thank you." They kissed, pulled away, hugged, and she continued, "I feel so bad, though. I didn't get you anything.." She lied as she hugged him, her expression keeping up with her words.  
"It's okay, I didn't expect you too." Toby smiled, and they pulled away from the hug.  
Spencer took the flowers farther into the kitchen. "Let me go put these in water." She walked over to the sink, and grabbed a large cup that would fit the flowers, yet holding the flowers in her other hand.  
He watched her the whole time, a pleasant look on his face, like he was pleased. He was to say in the least. Until, that is, he looked down when his hand touched a key. Picking it up, he noticed it had an 'A' attached to it. In sharpie. He furrowed his eyebrows and looked back up at Spencer.  
"'A'?" He asked suspiciously, looking nonchalant, but his mind held many other thoughts than that.  
At the sound of his voice again, Spencer looked over at him, seeing him holding the key.  
Toby had known about 'A' before. In fact, he was even accused of being 'A' before he had any sort of relationship with any of them, when he was just the creepy next door neighbor that was the step-brother of the blind girl, Jenna.  
"Oh, it's not what you think." Spencer said casually, turning the cold water on in the sink. She continued, "Melissa left it here. She has a storage unit in Philly." She lied to him, and he knew it.  
He raised his eyebrows and watched her as she threw it in a drawer, memorizing what drawer she threw it in for later while she walked back to the sink.  
Forcing a smile, he looked at the flowers at the same time Spencer did. "They're so pretty." She said in a whisper.  
"I better get back to work." He said, interrupting the perfect moment.  
"Yeah," Spencer agreed. "I better go get dressed for that dinner." She covered up herself, trying to make it believable. In her mind, it really was working.  
And in his.  
"The sky's gettin' pretty dark." Toby told her out of the blue as he craned his neck to looking out the window, indicating that a storm was on it's way... Indeed there was. "Maybe I'll get to come home early." He said with a cute, innocent, hopeful smile.  
Spencer's eyes widened, and she didn't return the look. "Will you call me if you do?!" She asked quickly. No way was her plan getting ruined because of a storm.  
He nodded, still smiling.  
"Okay." She said quietly, grabbed his face, and kissed him again.  
After pulling away, Toby said, "Love you."  
"I love you, too." She whispered, not letting go of him. Again she gave him a big hug, like it was the last time she was going to see him.

The room was dark. Waiting in the dark kitchen for Toby, Spencer Hastings was as good as a wreck. The curtains pulled, the lights out, the key with 'A' written in sharpie on the chain. The nametag, E. Lamb, she was putting the pieces together.  
All she wanted to do was rip those pieces up.  
Time seemed to stretch out to a thousand years. He had to come. Toby had to come. In the black hoodie or not, he saw the A written on the key, she saw the look on his face.  
There was always the possibility that A was watching her and wouldn't show up.  
Her heart beat a hundred miles per second when the sound of the door opening shook her out of her thoughts, made her jump out of her skin, nearly. But she was ready. He was here, and she was ready for him.  
Clutching the key in her shaking fingers, Spencer slowly stood up when she heard the drawer open, revealing herself from behind the counter she was hidden behind. A black hoodie had it's back to her as she shakily took a step around the counter, forward, toward him.  
"Is this what you're looking for?" Holding up the key, watching as the black hood lifted up, the thunder and lightning distracting her blurring eyes. Her voice came out soft, raspy, like she'd been crying.  
Spencer tossed the key to the floor, sniffling as she did. She had been crying.  
The black hood cautiously shut the drawer he was going through, and turned around.  
Toby.  
He didn't look surprised, he didn't look sad, he didn't look mad, upset, or scared. His expression was blank as he stared at Spencer from across the room.  
Spencer, at that moment, could feel more anger than sadness build up in her heart, and she clenched her fists to her sides.  
Crossing the room to her, Toby stopped just inches from Spencer as she looked at him with a long, sad look.  
"Spencer." He whispered as a sort of greeting, she guessed.  
She slapped him across his unguarded, nearly hidden by a black hood, beautiful face that she used to love- still did love.  
Still, his expression did not change. Blank expression staring her right in the face. _A_ staring her right in the face. She wasn't scared. She was mad, and her expression showed it.  
"How long have you known?" He asked her.  
The anger now vanishing from her face, her mouth facing down in a permanent frown. She was hurt, broken, even. Of course she was. Her boyfriend was a part of 'A'.  
She held up the nametag, the thing facing him, a picture of his unsmiling face facing up at the real Toby Cavanaugh, the one Spencer just knew was part of 'A'. Spencer'd found the thing when Toby had lazily or accidently left it in her drawer. She didn't know how it got there in the first place.  
He reached out and took it slowly from her grasp, pulling it into his gloved hands, the nametag. And he said nothing.  
Neither did Spencer, and she was on the verge of losing it again.  
"Spencer?!" A voice called, a door slammed.  
Her head snapped to the side at the sound of her mothers voice.  
There wasn't a reply from Spencer at first, but Toby's response was slipping away out the door again. Tears fell down Spencer's face again, and lighting lit up the house again as she watched him leave.  
Turning her head again as her mom approached, uncontrollable tears continued to flow from her eyes. Veronica's voice was lit up with a smile in the dark. "Hi, Honey." She said cheerfully, trying to get a look at her daughter in the dark. When she did, her smile faded. "Is everything okay?"  
Spencer could only shake her head again and again as her mom walked toward her quickly, worry creasing her eyebrows.  
"What is it, Honey?" Veronica Hastings asked Spencer, while Spencer's heart broke right in front of her.  
"Mommy," Spencer choked out, slowly putting her arms around her mother's neck, needing comfort. This worried Veronica even more, and she hugged Spencer back as Spencer sobbed loud sobs into Veronica's shoulder in the dark.  
The thunder crashed.  
The lightning followed.  
The sobs were louder than both.  
Veronica didn't ask what happened to Spencer, didn't ask why she was crying, didn't ask how the supposed dinner that Spencer had set up for Toby had went. She just held her daughter, all that Spencer needed at that moment.  
The last thing on Spencer's mind was telling her friends and family what'd just happened.


End file.
